Lighter BMW M4 signals M brand going back to its roots

The M5 and M6 have both packed on the pounds, so the fact that the M4 is lighter than its predecessor gives me hope

By David Booth

Originally published: June 12, 2014

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For the record, my favourite car — at least before Audi’s RS7 came along — was BMW’s 1992 M5. Twenty-two years is a long time for any car to hold the attention of a spoiled-to-the-bone autojournalist, but I can remember vividly sliding the M5 round Ontario’s Shannonville Motorsport Park with the dexterity of a Mazda Miata, marveling how the Germans could make something with five seats carve corners like a hot-rodded roadster. It was a life-affirming moment, justifying my previous disquiet about switching my journalistic focus to four wheels from two. Combined with that high-revving BMW inline six, it was automotive heaven, so much so that, again, for 22 years no car supplanted the M5 as my most desired of rides.

That’s why the current M5 — and, indeed, the last three generations of M5, not to mention the M6 and its derivations — is so disappointing. Look at the spec sheet and you will find that the current model boasts 560 horsepower, dramatically more than the 310 or so the 1992 boasted. But that same spec sheet will also warn you that the current M5 weighs 1,975 kilograms. That’s a whopping 354 pounds over two tons and no matter what magic the wizards at M can conjure, anything over 4,000 pounds has lost its mojo. Where once an M5 was a rapier-like scalpel slicing and dicing corners with precision, the 2014, while still rapid, is a blunt edged broadsword, able to speed along, yes, but without any of the finesse that was once its calling card. That this has been a long time coming — the previous V10 was barely better and the E39 V8 the first sign that BMW was losing its focus — does not make it any less disheartening.

2014 BMW M6 Gran CoupeRob Rothwell, Driving

Nor is the M5 alone in its terminal weight gain. It’s two-door sibling, the M6, burdens the scales at a barely lighter 1,930 kilos. But the true travesty of the M lineup has to be the M6 Cabriolet. What is ostensibly sold as a truly sporty two-door roadster — remember Mr. Biermann’s contention that M cars must work on the track as well as they do on the road — weighs in at an incredible 2,045 kg. That’s 4,508 pounds folks, more than the curb weight of a base Cayenne, an SUV that you will remember was being lambasted as proof that Porsche had surrendered its legitimacy as a purveyor of sporting vehicles. Never mind that the Cabrio needs all manner of weight-increasing structural reinforcements. Or that it too has 560 turbocharged horsepower. Two thousand and forty-five kilograms do not a sporty car make, no matter how cleverly engineered and packaged.

That’s why the M4’s weight loss is so heartening. It didn’t have quite the same paunch problem that the M5 and M6 do, but it (hopefully) signals a re-focusing of the M brand on what it does best. And, if some of the incredible advancements in carbon fibre construction that the i3 heralds is passed along, maybe I will be able to go back to worshipping everything that is the M5. It’s been a long time.